Public obscenity law not set to return

(ANSA) - ROME, JAN 27 - Italy is not set to see public obscenity laws return on the basis of a bill filed in October by Premier Giorgia Meloni's rightwing Brothers of Italy (FdI) party, majority sources clarified Friday.
    The October 19 bill, whose first signatory is FdI Deputy Foreign Minister Edmondo Cirielli, would have changed Italy's criminal code and brought back jail time for breaching obscenity norms in public.
    The main thrust of the anti-vice bill was to clean up the streets from shows of indecency by sea workers and their clients, he said.
    "The aim is to combat more adequately the moral degradation that afflicts our communities, boost the safety and security of citizens, and safeguard public morals and decency".
    Green/Left House Whip Luana Zanella accused Cirielli of "prurient moralism and sexism" in aiming to punish sex work in cars while leaving sex work indoors unpunished.
    But government sources stressed that "this bill is not part of the government agenda" and was a personal initiative on the part of Cirielli. (ANSA).